No one's sure exactly when Puget Sound joined the list of the nation's troubled waters. A pretty face hides a lot. Pressures from population growth have taken a 50-year toll on Puget Sound, as they have on other major water systems, including the Everglades, Long Island Sound, Chesapeake Bay and the Great Lakes.

State researchers predicted Monday that this summer could be severe for algae blooms that threaten fish and other marine life in Chesapeake Bay. Scientists believe a 10-mile-wide algae bloom on the Potomac River could begin in June and last for two and a half months.

The resulting debates about sprawl, new schools, and rising property costs mirror a nationwide trend of development reaching ever outward from urban centers, and in this case that trend is transforming a rural peninsula that has long lived in the shadow of the nation's capital.

Congress will consider a $30 million network of buoys, wave gauges and seismic sensors to warn of tsunamis globally, a plan that would build on U.S. and international efforts to avert another catastrophe.

Broadband use at home has surpassed that of dial-up in the United States, reaching 53% of residential Web users in October, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. For now, what people do online hasn't changed as much as its frequency and duration. Taking advantage of their always-on connection, they tend to practice "infosnacking."